


Whumptober 8

by Waywocket



Category: Autodale (Web Series)
Genre: Body Horror, Mutilation, Nightmares, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26889493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waywocket/pseuds/Waywocket
Summary: Shadow wakes up, not quite sure he knows what's going on.
Kudos: 12
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Whumptober 8

Blinking awake, Shadow raised his hand to rub his face and wake up fully. He froze, hand half to his face.

Skin. There was skin over his hands. He couldn’t quite place why that was odd. It felt familiar, yet like a distant memory. Somewhere he remembered worn suede gloves over metal. The skin was unsettling, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.

Worse, the unsettling feeling came from how happy it made him. He ran his hands over each other, relishing in the feeling, the warmth of his hands. This was normal, and it felt good to be normal. He tried to focus on the moment, not the worry. 

After a moment, he looked around him properly. He was on a train, passing through the streets of Autodale. He watched the scenery pass as they blurred by. Up ahead of the tower in the center of the large city. The train’s destination.

That thought made him afraid, enough he felt sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to go, but he couldn’t place why. It was rare for people to go to the center of the city, at least that far. 

Under a bridge and he saw his reflection clearly. His mask snuggly in place, and over the forehead, a label, ‘Exceptional' was neatly written there. He was going to where all the exceptional citizens went; to help the mayor.

So why wasn’t he happy, excited? Everyone wished to be exceptional. To go and be more than a model citizen. So why was he so afraid, why was his blood cold, his hands shaking? He held them together, trying to stay calm.

It wasn’t right, something was wrong! He needed to go back to get off the train!

As soon as he was on his feet, he wasn’t on the train anymore. 

Now the world was dark around him. The only lights came from their faces. Unmoving faces covered in lights and wires. Faces with no bodies, only skin stretched and held up by wires, while their hearts hung and beat below them. Their lungs still drew breath and, even their rotting stomachs churned in the air.

Hive, he knew their name, knew each face as he had stared at them a million times before. They were talking over each other. Trying to find his place before he joined them. Because that was what came next, he remembered.

He was a part of Hive, just a piece of them. Something he would always be, for as long as they saw it fit for him to live.

Searing pain erupted from his lower half as he felt something tear into him. Crying out, he tried to get away from the pain as it bloomed through him. Even as he fell, his legs fell the other way.

Before he hit the floor, wires wrapped tightly around him. He struggled and begged he didn’t want this! He didn’t want to become nothing! 

The pain grew worse as he felt his skin being peeled away. Still, he tried to get away screaming and crying. Even as he felt each bone being yanked away.

The more he struggled, the tighter the wires went, wrapping around his neck, all that was left of him, yet somehow he was alive to feel it all. The wires pulled him higher, rising up to hang into place, like some haunted hunting trophy.

Screaming, Shadow sat up in his bed, gasping for breath. His face was dripping with sweat as he tried to come back to reality.

He tried to wipe the sweat away, but the metal hands did little to help. At least they were cool to the touch, and he pressed his face into them, trying to convince himself he wasn’t crying.

After a while, he cursed himself for letting a dream get to him. What was done was done. Looking up, he looked at himself in the small mirror on the wall.

The lights outside the window spilled in just enough to see the shape of him, the glint off the metal of him. His eyes and face lit up the other details. Highlighted the wires plugged into his face, keeping him alive and aware.

He frowned deeply and looked away just as quickly. A machine with a few organic parts, that’s all he was. Nothing like what he once was. Throwing back the blanket that had knotted around his legs, he got out of bed.

He needed a drink.


End file.
